134 THE EFFECTS OF CHLOROFORM ON HORSES. 
required for our first-rate sires, to put their mares to any common 
horse they meet with. And, since most of those that travel, 
having good appearance and action, are either blind, spavined, 
curby, or with some defect that makes the foreigner reject them, 
the result is, that in the next generation the country becomes 
stocked with mares the majority of which bear some of these 
defects. For I do not believe there was one-fifth of the unsound 
horses from these causes twenty years ago. And I contend, con- 
trary to Mr. Goodwin’s opinion, that trying to produce a good- 
looking horse, as understood by a horse-man, is not “ to please the 
eye to impoverish the pocket;” but that the horse of moderate 
good size, and well shaped, is not only the best race-horse, but the 
best to get racing or any other stock. 
Look at our best stallions of the present day — Touchstone, Don 
John, The Provost, Sir Hercules, Hetman PlatofF, and others of 
their class. Do they tell bad for the opinion herein advocated 1 
Whereas, Venison, Sir Isaac, Col wick, and Picaroon, are about 
the only getters of race-horses, of the contrary character. Col- 
wick, certainly, got Attila, and Venison Alarm, both superior race- 
horses. But there have been as good, and a few more of them, 
got by better-sized horses. And it must be taken into account, 
that Venison had as many good and tried mares as any horse in 
the country, and that these were the property of owners who en- 
gage the produce deeply ; thus giving the chance, in case of a 
superior horse being got by him, of enormously swelling the num- 
ber and amount of stakes won. 
THE EFFECTS OF CHLOROFORM ON HORSES; 
WITH ITS PROBABLE OPERATION AS AN ANAESTHETIC AGENT 
IN VETERINARY SURGERY. 
By William Field, M.R.C.V.S . , London . 
My dear Mr. Editor, — Assured that you, in common with 
your subscribers, will feel gratified at having some account of the 
new and powerful anaesthetic £gent, chloroform, I send you the 
results of some experiments I have made with it; and along with 
them the deductions to which I feel myself, after due consideration, 
warranted in coming. 
First of all, however, let me describe to you the apparatus I 
make use of. It is simple, consisting merely in an ordinary 
